Support substrates or carriers for semiconductor elements of the type to which the present invention relates are described, for example, in German Patent Disclosure Document DE-OS No. 31 06 193. These support elements are made of compound material. In the roll-plating process it is necessary to carry out intermediate or recrystallization annealing. The directly contacting copper-containing layers and aluminum-containing layers, during such treatment, will form intermetallic phases. Upon bending of the resulting structure, the layers tend to show brittleness; adhesion of the layers is impaired and they may separate from each other. Upon punching such substrates, separation or defoliation effects can be observed at the cut edges which occur during the punching, stamping or other cutting operations.